Saturday, 11 October 2008

Red

Yesterday in Rome, the horribly disorganised and fragmented Italian left still managed to pull together something like 250,000 people to walk Rome's streets in protest against the Lodo Alfano, the law that gives judicial immunity to the holders of the four most senior institutional positions in the country: the premier, the president and the heads of the senate and the camera of deputies. The aim of the law is to ensure that the running of the country isn't disturbed by pesky communists a politicised judiciary with no respect for authority. In practice, its aim is to get Berlusconi out of the few remaining legal crocks of shit he hadn't been able to avoid by other means during his last stretch in power, which ended just over two years ago. The legislation of the last few years is littered with ad personam laws designed for precisely this purpose. Indeed, it would be hard to find any other kind of legislation, other than an electoral reform that makes it impossible for Italian voters to actually vote for people. Which would explain why parliament is full of people no one has heard of, including an impressive selection of the capo's lawyers and girlfriends.

It was a good march, full of joy and colour and music. I'm glad I was there for it.

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Personal information

Born in England, I've been living in central Italy since 1980. My début novel - LITTLE MONSTERS - was published by Picador on 7 March 2008. The paperback came out on 6 February 2009. A collection of short fiction, entitled THE SCENT OF CINNAMON AND OTHER STORIES, is now available from Salt Publishing. The title story was selected as one of the O. Henry Prize Stories 2007. My second novel, ANY HUMAN FACE, was published by Picador on 7 May 2010 and came out in paperback in November 2011. In February 2014, my new novel, THE VIEW FROM THE TOWER (Exhibit A) will be published along side a memoir (WITH A ZERO AT ITS HEART, The Friday Project).
(Photo credit: Patrizia Casamirra)